Читать книгу The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 06 - Коллектив авторов, Ю. Д. Земенков, Koostaja: Ajakiri New Scientist - Страница 8

  To France were traveling two grenadiers,

    From prison in Russia returning,

  And when they came to the German frontiers,

    They hung down their heads in mourning.

  There came the heart-breaking news to their ears

    That France was by fortune forsaken;

  Scattered and slain were her brave grenadiers,

    And Napoleon, Napoleon was taken.

  Then wept together those two grenadiers

    O'er their country's departed glory;

  "Woe's me," cried one, in the midst of his tears,

    "My old wound—how it burns at the story!"

  The other said: "The end has come,

    What avails any longer living

  Yet have I a wife and child at home,

    For an absent father grieving.

  "Who cares for wife? Who cares for child?

    Dearer thoughts in my bosom awaken;

  Go beg, wife and child, when with hunger wild,

    For Napoleon, Napoleon is taken!

  "Oh, grant me, brother, my only prayer,

    When death my eyes is closing:

  Take me to France, and bury me there;

    In France be my ashes reposing.

  "This cross of the Legion of Honor bright,

    Let it lie near my heart, upon me;

  Give me my musket in my hand,

    And gird my sabre on me.

  "So will I lie, and arise no more,

    My watch like a sentinel keeping,

  Till I hear the cannon's thundering roar,

    And the squadrons above me sweeping.

  "Then the Emperor comes! and his banners wave,

    With their eagles o'er him bending,

  And I will come forth, all in arms, from my grave,

    Napoleon, Napoleon attending!"